Silver and Rolles
by Claude Lawless
Summary: Two girls, two wildly different personalities. After an odd temporal accident, they find themselves agreeing to help the goddess of fate repair a destroyed time line. Unfortunately, she never mentioned that pirates would be involved...
1. 77 mph for Temporal Displacement

**Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone. My name is Pingo T. Best, and welcome to the first chapter of my latest and greatest project. Some of you may already be familiar with Emily Rolles, as she had appeared in an earlier work I had put up some time last year. That work is canceled, and has been deleted from my account. I'm sorry about that, but it would have conflicted with this story. It was created by a friend and I, and it just seemed to be much easier to write in that there were more..._things_ that didn't seem like they were being pulled out of nowhere as an excuse for something.**

**Anyways, pull up a seat, enjoy the show, and feel free to leave a review after you're done. Constructive criticism and is always appreciated!**

**And now, the opening quote:**

* * *

_"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."_

- Mark Twain

* * *

This tale is about a girl. She has green eyes and long silky hair that is the color of a ripe lemon. She's a smart girl, always reading or practicing her swordplay. She loves her mother and her father, even though he isn't around as much as she'd like him to be. She also loves her little brother, even if he does get on her nerves more often than not. If you were to see her walking down the street, you would see a normal young teenager wearing a pretty smile on her face, faded blue jeans on her legs, and training callouses on her hands like gloves. Her name is Julia Diana Silver, or Emerald D. Silver to friends and compatriots.

Another girl is involved that is quite the opposite of Miss Silver. She the youngest child of six and the only daughter of an old widower. Perhaps as a result of the constant calamity in her home, she can't stand the company of others, preferring to block out the world with the rock and roll blaring out of her headphones. Although she has a creative mind, she is quite lazy, often ignoring the world around her in favor of her own thoughts. This is reflected in the way she looks, with brown hair that hangs in her face and eyes made of the darkest chocolate. One could compare her to a radio station, with a layer of white noise on top and beautiful music underneath. Her name is Emily Rolles.

Neither of the girls were particularly fond of each other, often trading insults whenever the opportunity arose. A typical conversation between the two would usually go something like this:

"Would you grab that for me, please?" Emerald would ask in an attempt to be polite.

"Get it yourself." Rolles would reply.

"Geez, someone has a stick up their bum today."

"Anyone would be miserable if they had to see at your ugly mug first thing in the morning."

"You're mumbling. Care to say it again, Ozzy? A little more coherently this time?"

"Not particularly. I think once is enough to get the point across."

"Little brat."

"Fricking bitch."

...And so on, until someone else intervened.

It's simply a wonder that they hadn't strangled each other by the time it occurred: the two of them disappeared while on a class trip to Six Flags New England. While this sounds rather mundane, the 'Springfield Enigma', as it came to be called, was highly unusual in that both girls were last seen riding the Bizarro roller coaster. Not waiting in line or getting off, but actually strapped in. Those that were there verify that they were in the last row of the last car, bickering as usual. The arguing eventually changed to screaming, and by the time the train arrived back at the station, there was nothing.

At first glance, it would appear that the girls were thrown from the train due to faulty seat belts or similar, and that their mangled corpses were somewhere in the general vicinity. This hypothesis soon proved wrong, as all the equipment was in working order upon inspection and none of the other passengers were harmed. Nothing related to either of the girls was ever recovered, let alone their bodies. The only thing that was unusual was that there was a white smudge found on safety bar, but it was quickly dismissed as make-up.

To this day, no one can accurately explain what happened. Some claim that aliens are responsible, others claim that it was all a hoax.

All of these presented ideas were wrong, as one might have already guessed. What really happened is significantly stranger.

* * *

"...Are you shitting me." Rolles said flatly. At the moment, she was too annoyed to bother putting any expression into it that actually made it sound like a question.

"You people seriously want me sit next to that monkey?" Emerald, on the other hand, was annoyed enough for her voice to begin squeaking. "The whole reason I sat in the back was to avoid her!"

"It's certainly not my fault all the other seats are taken."

"If you sit here, I swear to God I will scream."

The other passengers rolled their eyes. "It's not going to kill you if she sits next to you for three and a half minutes," A friend said from farther up. "Stop throwing a hissy fit and let her sit next to you before you both get kicked off the ride."

Emerald pouted for a moment, briefly considering leaving of her own will. "Fine, whatever," She grumbled. "Just don't scream too loudly."

Rolles plunked herself down. "I was going to say the same to you, blondie," She muttered as she put on her seat belt. Emerald did likewise, glaring at her the entire time. She didn't seem to notice, and was suddenly interested in picking at a hangnail.

Suddenly, the lap bars came down, and an attendant came by to check them. "Good afternoon, ladies," He said cheerily. "Enjoying the park so far?" The young man had blonde hair and friendly brown eyes that glinted in the sun.

Emerald was immediately charmed. "I love it here!" She said. "I come almost every summer! But right now I'm on a trip with my school, so I get to show my friends all my favorite rides! We've gone on the Batman already, and we're planning on going on the Mind Eraser next, but we had to ride this one first because I was always too scared to ride it whenever I came here before, 'cause everyone knows that it's less scary when you're with friends and-!"

"That's wonderful, darling," He said. "Now, if you would just hold on a moment so I could check your bar..." He leaned over Emerald's seat and gave the bar between her and Rolles a good hard push downwards, unintentionally pinching Rolles's finger in the process.

"Ow."

"Sorry." The man gave both the girl's shoulders a gentle pat. "Now have fun, ladies, and be careful not to scream yourselves too hoarse," Neither of them noticed the way he smirked to himself as he walked away or the white powder hand prints on their shoulders.

"Don't worry, we won't!" Emerald chortled. She flashed a pearly-white smile at him as the train began to move, making a mental note to see if she could get his number when they got back. "I'll even make sure Wimpy here doesn't blow anyone's eardrums out with her screeching!"

When they were out of earshot, Rolles sighed in exasperation. "Christ, woman, do you always talk that much when a hot guy so much as looks at you, or is it just a one-time thing?"

"No, but at least he was actually interested in me."

"He wasn't interested in you, dumbass, he was trying to make sure that you wouldn't fly out of your seat on the turns." She said. After a moment she decided to take another jab at her seatmate. "I'm sure if he actually knew you he'd break the bar and call it an accident."

Emerald glared at her. "At least you'd go down with me."

"Totally worth seeing your ugly mug splatter all over the ground before I bit it."

"I was going to say the same thing, but upon hearing it come out of your mouth, it sounds stupider than I thought."

"At least I had the guts to actually say it."

"More like there's no filter between your brain and your mouth." Emerald snorted.

"At least I have a brain, unlike some people"

"A peanut-sized one won't get you very far in life."

"Farther than you could ever manage."

"At least I'll actually be somewhere."

"Alright, bitch, you wanna go?" Rolles growled. She turned to Emerald and balled her hands into fists.

Emerald looked at her skeptically. "Are you seriously challenging me to a fist fight on a roller coaster?"

"You wanna go or not?"

"Fighting never settles anything, I think you would at least know thaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Emerald attempted at sounding intimidating was was cut off by a sudden 200-foot drop; Bizarro's first (and tallest) hill. Although she was aware that her mouth was open and that there was a loud sound coming out, she couldn't actually hear herself screaming over the air rushing past her ears.

Rolles was howling in fear and whooping in ecstasy within the space of a few moments. She howled like a wolf because the drop had taken her by surprise, and she whooped when she gathered her wits enough to register that it was only the first hill. At the same time, she vaguely became aware of an odd tingling sensation on her back. It trickled down her spine and spread across her the rest of body, making her feel as if she was covered with little soda bubbles. Emerald felt it too, and assumed that it was merely a physical manifestation of her absolute and utter terror at going downhill at over fifty miles an hour.

The sensation became stronger as they approached the tunnel at the bottom. Rolles began to wriggle around in her seat, trying to shake the numbing sensation from her limbs. It felt like her entire body had succumbed to pin-and-needles, and it was beginning to feel extremely painful. Emerald squirmed too, but to no avail. There didn't seem to be any way of shaking the feeling that their bodies had fallen completely asleep.

The tingle spread to their faces. Their eyelids felt heavy and fatigued, with the urge to move was slowly fading away. "The friggin' hell's goin'non...?" Rolles slurred as her ears began to ring. Suddenly, her eyes closed and her head rolled back. Emerald, thinking that maybe the feeling would go away if she tried willing it gone, shut her eyes tightly. Unfortunately, the moment they closed, she was hit by a wave of darkness. Both girls had been rendered completely unconscious.

As the train entered the mist-filled tunnel, they began to disintegrate as if they were made of sand. First the top of the head, then the torso, then the legs. Their bodies had been broken apart and blown away, to reassemble themselves in parts unknown.

Where Emerald D. Silver and Emily Rolles had been in one world, there were two empty seats, with the seat belts still buckled and the safety bar untouched, save for a small white smudge.

* * *

In the darkness, there is a light. The source of the light is a small pool of water in a marble basin resting on a pillar. Color dance along its surface, creating figures and shapes of all sizes and kinds. A beautiful woman is watching them, her eyes following their paths. As they twist and turn, she grows angrier and angrier. With a sudden flick of her hand, the colors disappear, and she she puts a hand to her forehead.

"Oh, Taiyou," She sighs. "I have told you countless times not to meddle in the affairs of innocent mortals." She shakes her head in disappointment. "Those poor girls, who knows what they will disturb?"

The woman silently picks up a crystal pitcher from the base of the pillar and closes her eyes. The pitcher begins to glow with a pale green light, as does the water in the marble basin. In moments, the water that was formerly in the basin is transferred to the pitcher, and the basin is dry. She glides over to a shelf and places it on a shelf amongst thousands of other pitchers in a spot labeled 'Septemea terrae, quarti ponti.' Seven continents, five oceans.

She sighs gently, and brushes her golden hair from her face. "I wonder where you will go?" She asks aloud. She looks around at the pitchers on her shelf. "In what world will you find yourselves in next, I wonder?"


	2. Down the Rabbit Hole

**A/N: I forgot to mention that I'd like to thank my friend Vicky for translating some things into Latin for me and helping me name some people. You rock!**

* * *

_"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."_

- James Joyce_  
_

* * *

Brown eyes snapped open, but their owner thought for a brief moment that they still closed. Rolles blinked a few times, and rubbed them. It did nothing to clear then inky darkness that surrounded her, and she thought for a moment that she had gone blind. Looking around disproved that theory, however, as she could still see the rest of her body quite clearly. "Well, this is just weird."

She shook her head in an attempt to clear it, and it occurred to her that she was lying on her back. What she was lying on, she had no idea, but she was looking 'up' as far as she could tell. Deciding she had nothing to gain by remaining there and doing nothing, she rose to her feet. "Looks like nothing's broken." She said. "Let's see if I can figure out where I am."

Rolles looked around again. Nothing had changed, except for the fact that she could now see tiny pinpricks of light in the distance. She wondered if they were stars. "Only one way to find out," Tapping into her inner moth, she decided to go towards the lights. Before she could take a step, however, she heard a loud intake of breath from behind her. She whipped around and threw her hands up, bracing herself for a horrible creature's roar.

"M-MONSTER!" Emerald screamed instead.

"You gotta be kidding me..." She put a hand to her forehead as Emerald screamed again. "It's just me, you stupid blond! Stop screaming!"

Emerald did just that and looked at her. "Rolles?"

"Yes!"

"Oh," Emerald paused for a moment, and then she screamed again, startling Rolles enough into jumping.

"Now what are you screaming about?"

"I'M STUCK IN THE DARK WITH EMILY ROLLES!"

The girl in question stared at her, a blank look on her face. "You are seriously unbelievable."

Emerald ignored her and began to babble nervously. "I can't die here, I'm only sixteen! I haven't even gotten my driver's permit yet!"

"Look, no one's gonna die," Rolles tried to interject. "There are some lights over there, and-"

"I've never driven a car in my life! All the other kids in Heaven will laugh at me!"

"I already told you, we're not gonna-"

"Oh no, what if I go to Hell? My parents will kill me if I go to Hell!"

"Emerald."

"What if I'm already in Hell? What if we died on that roller coaster and this is our punishment for the rest of eternity?"

"Emerald!"

"I can't believe I'm stuck in a dark Hell with Emily Rolles forever-!"

She was cut off by a rough palm making contact with her cheek. The hollow sound echoed in the darkness. "Would you get a hold of yourself?" Rolles shouted. "You're not making the situation any better by breaking down and having a fricking panic attack!"

Emerald's eyes were wide. "...You slapped me..."

"No shit, Sherlock! Look, I'm sorry I had to do it, but how else was I supposed to get your attention?"

"...You could've just asked..."

Rolles sighed in exasperation and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Why?" She asked no one in particular. "Why, out of all the people on the face of the Earth, why did I have to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with you?"

"I heard that, y'know."

"Whatever."

Emerald rolled her eyes, turned around, and walked past Rolles. "Hey, were those lights always over there?"

"I was trying to tell you that we should go towards them."

Green eyes lit up, and Emerald beamed. "Well, c'mon, then! What're waiting for?"

"You were having a panic attack, so I couldn't get a word in edgewise..." Rolles turned around to find that Emerald had taken off without her. "YOU CAN'T JUST GO RUNNING OFF ALONE!"

"Last one there's a rotten egg!"

Rolles sighed again before taking off after her as fast as she could.

* * *

"Run faster, Emily Rolles, or else you'll never get here!" Emerald shouted into the darkness. "C'mon, my gramma can run faster than you!"

"I'm running as fast as I can...!" Although Rolles was very slim, she was not athletic at all, a fact frequently reflected in her P.E. marks. After a few minutes, she finally collapsed at Emerald's feet. "Damn athletic people..." She wheezed.

Emerald giggled. "C'mon, then! Let's check these things out!"

The lights that they had seen were coming from many small pools of water, each giving off an ethereal glow. Some were bigger than others, and some seemed to have dried up altogether. The color of the water itself varied, some being a soft, near-translucent green with others being a harsh shade of red.

Emerald bent over and looked into a middle-sized green one. "Hey, I think I see people down here."

"What the-?" Rolles stood up and bent down over the pool, looking deep into its waters. She could see an orange figure jumping through trees towards something. "...Is that a raccoon?" She asked, slightly dumbstruck.

"I dunno, it looks kinda like a dog with a really fluffy tail."

"...Okay then."

Shrugging, Emerald stood up and wandered over to another pool, this time an orange one. In it, she could see a young girl with blond hair speaking to a large cat with an unnerving grin. "Looks like Alice in Wonderland," She mused. As she watched, the cat suddenly vanished, leaving the little girl baffled. "Yep. Definitely Wonderland."

Somewhere behind her, Rolles whistled. "Now _that_ is what I call a awesome fight." She said. "Just a bunch of guys dukin' it out on a ship in the middle of a huge-ass whirlpool."

"_Pirates of the Carribean_?" Emerald said under her breath. "But how is that even possible?" A hypothesis began to form in her head, but she dismissed it for being far too far-fetched. "...But then again..." She walked over to a hot pink pool near her and bent down. A large green figure was stomping through a cornfield, followed by a gray figure with four legs.

"Oh my God, I knew it." She said.

She backed away from the pool and ran to where Rolles was bending down. She grabbed the back of her companion's pants, causing her to turn her head. "What're you doing-?"

Emerald jerked back with such force that they both lost their balance, with Emerald falling onto her rump and Rolles landing in her lap. The latter immediately jumped back up, her face as red as a beet.

"What the hell was that for?" Rolles demanded. "It was just getting good!"

"You can't go near any of the pools! You might fall in!" Emerald said.

"And what would be so bad about that?"

"You'd end up in another world, just like in the first _Chronicles of Narnia_ book!"

Rolles gave her a skeptical stare. "...Narnia. You think that if I fell into one of those puddles, I'd end up in Narnia."

"Well, no, not exactly."

"Then what, exactly?"

Emerald licked her lips, racking her brains for a simple way to explain her theory. "Um...I'm pretty sure that if you fell into that one over there," She pointed at the pink one she had been looking into moments ago. "You'd probably end up in the _Shrek_ universe. Y'know, Duloc and Far Far Away and stuff."

The stare didn't waver. "You are aware that that's a work of fiction, right? Made up?"

"So are the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movies, but you saw the climax of the third one over there, didn't you?"

Rolles wrinkled her brow. "Now that you mention it, it did look kinda familiar..." She said, half-mumbling.

"We're at a...a pathway between a whole bunch of different universes. I dunno how we got here, but if we find the pool to our own world, then we should be able to jump in and forget this all happened." Emerald said. She was absolutely sure of herself, and she smiled when she saw a look of understanding dawn on her companion's face.

"Wow, Silver, I'm impressed."

The compliment caused Emerald's to puff out her chest slightly. "Thank you, I-"

"That's the stupidest thing I think I've ever heard come out of your mouth."

Emerald's pride quickly turned to humiliation and astonishment. Her jaw dropped a fraction of an inch. "You don't...you don't believe me...?"

Rolles shrugged. "No, not really. But I'll give you points for creativity."

Shock and embarassment turned to anger. "Alright then, Miss I-Know-Everything-Ever," She challenged. "Let's see you come up with a better explanation for where we are and how we can get home."

"It's simple, actually," Rolles smirked and shrugged again. "Something went wrong on the roller coaster, and I'm at the hospital in a coma or passed out or whatever. This is all one crazy-ass dream I've been having that you somehow managed to worm your way into, and when I wake up, this will all disappear, you'll be gone and everyone will fawn over me for the next couple of months."

"People don't dream in comas, stupid. I read it in a book once."

"Ooh, congratulations. You can read."

Emerald opened her mouth to say something about why it's impossible, but she stopped when she had a better idea. "Well then, if this is all one big crazy dream, what's the harm in trying my idea out?" She said smugly.

There was a long pause between the two of them as Rolles racked her brains for a witty retort.

"...You've got a point," She conceded. "I'm not too happy about it, but why not?"

In her mind, Emerald did a victory dance. "Alright then, let's get to looking."

* * *

Rolles bent down to look into a purple pool. "...Is that Anhk-Morpork?"

"Did you say something about wanting more pork?"

"No, nothing, never mind. It's not the real world," She said.

"You mean 'our universe.'"

Rolles sighed. This was taking far longer than she had thought it would. Even if she didn't believe what Emerald was saying about a 'Pathway Between the Universes', it was still disheartening that they hadn't been able to find their own yet. She wandered over to another pool and looked at it. "Hey, I think I found it."

"Really?" Emerald walked over and looked into the mint green waters.

"No, I was just saying that so you'd get your hopes up and I could topple them all in one fell swoop," Rolles deadpanned. Emerald glared daggers at her. "Look, it's hopeless. We're never gonna find it."

"I'm absolutely positive that it's here somewhere. We just have to keep looking."

"I swear to God, you sound like that guy from _Blue's Clues_..." She grumbled and ran a hand through her hair. "Why, exactly, are you so sure that one of these things will take us home?"

"I just know, alright?"

"Whatever..." Rolles sighed, then furrowed her eyebrows. "...Is that a giant blueberry?"

Emerald looked around. Sure enough, there was a large blue fruit sitting next to one of the pools. She walked over and picked it up as carefully as she could. The skin was too tough for it to be any kind of berry she knew about, and there were lines of indigo swirling on its peel. "I don't think this a blueberry."

"Then what is it, then?"

"I think it might be some kind of orange."

There was a pause. "...An orange?"

"Yep." Emerald weighed it in her hand. "Definitely an orange."

"...A _blue_ orange?"

"I don't get it either."

"Oh, good, at least there's two of us," Rolles sighed, crouching down to look into the pool. Unlike the other pools, its water was perfectly clear, giving her a good look at what was inside. "Hey, I can hear the ocean."

Emerald wasn't listening. She was studying the unusual fruit, attempting to figure out just what it was supposed to be. On any other day, she would apply the 'if it looks like a duck' reasoning, but as far as she knew, there were no such things as blue oranges. Oranges were orange, and that's why they are called oranges. Or was it the other way around? Was orange called orange because oranges were orange?

Her line of thought was interrupted when her stomach rumbled and it occurred to her just how hungry she was. The last thing she had eaten was half a bag of cotton candy at the park, and that had been who knows how long ago. The fruit began to look extremely tasty, and she had half a mind to pop it right into her mouth and swallow, peel and all.

Rolles stood up and, noticing the ravenous look on Emerald's face, glared. "If you so much as lick that thing without breaking a piece off for me, I'll rip your god damn tongue out."

As she stuck her thumbnail into the peel, Emerald sighed. "Don't worry, you'll get a piece...whoa."

"What?" Her companion looked over her shoulder at the fruit, and her eyes widened. "...I'm not eating that."

Unlike the outside, the inside of the unusual blue fruit was a shade of green most commonly associated with radioactive materials.

"What in the world...?" Emerald felt the urge to giggle as she stared at it. The whole situation was getting more and more bizarre.

Rolles, on the other hand, wasn't amused. "Great, the only thing we have to eat is a retarded orange."

"I thought you said it was only a dream and that you'd wake up soon?"

"That doesn't mean I can't be hungry. You can have it, I'm not interested."

Emerald sighed and stared at the green flesh. They didn't know when their next meal would be, but then again, what if eating it made her sick? She could just throw it away and forget about it, but what if it really was the only food they had? She could put it in her pocket and save it, but what if it went bad or she squished it by accident? She struggled to make a decision, the conflict evident on her face.

"Y'know, if you're not gonna eat it, that automatically makes it mine."

Emerald paused for a moment, and then popped a piece of the bright green flesh into her mouth just to spite her.

She immediately regretted the decision.

"Oh dear God," She gagged. The taste was horrible, and it reminded her of the taste of the medicine that she had to take when she had an ear infection mixed with raw tomatoes.

Rolles watched her clutch at her throat. "Just swallow it, ya pussy," She said. When Emerald continued to choke, she rolled her eyes and slapped her hard on the back. There was an 'ulp' noise, and the gagging subsided. She snickered. "I think it's rotten, what do you think?"

Emerald glared at Rolles. "I was gonna spit that out, y'know."

"You sounded like you were choking, so I remedied the situation."

"You could've used the Heimlich."

"I could've."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I wanted to keep watching this." Rolles resuming squatting and looking into the clear pool. "It looks pretty cool down there, y'know?"

Emerald glanced downwards. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, time to resume looking for Earth."

"Whatever." Rolles stood up and turned to face the other girl, and immediately furrowed her brows. "Weren't you the only other person here?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Cuz there's a blond guy headed straight towards us."

"Huh?" Emerald whipped around, only to nearly be knocked over by a tall blond man as he sped past.

The man skidded to stop and turned around. "Uh-oh," He said. "You alright?" When he didn't get a response, he walked over. "Are you alright, miss?"

"Ow...yeah, I'm good." The man offered her a hand, and she took it, hoisting herself up.

Rolles quirked an eyebrow. "The hell were you running from anyway?"

"Um, nothing important," He said nervously as he looked around. Suddenly, he looked at her and cocked his head. "Say, have we met before?"

"I dunno. You don't look familiar."

The man turned to Emerald. "What about you?" He asked.

She stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't think so..."

"Oh, good-!"

"Wait, weren't you the attendant guy at Bizarro?"

There was a pause.

"Damn it." He turned and tried to run.

The man was fast, but the two girls reacted faster. Rolles managed to wrench his arms behind his back, and Emerald jumped onto him and wrapped her legs around his chest and upper arms.

"Get off of me! Now!" He shouted as he struggled. "Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Explain just what the hell is going on, and we'll think about it!" Rolles growled into the man's ear. "Where the hell are we? Who the hell are you and what do you want with us?" He jerked backwards and stomped on her foot.

She yelped, and the man broke free from her grip and ran past her, knocking Emerald off him in the process. "This wasn't supposed to happen! You aren't supposed to be here!" He said as he backed away from them. "You're supposed to be in-!"

At that moment, his right foot stepped on the edge the clear pool, causing him to stumble and fall backwards. He stuck his hands out to catch himself on the other edge, and he would have been successful if Emerald and Rolles hadn't decided to lunge and collide with him at him at the same exact moment. With a harsh cry, he slipped beneath the surface of the water.

Emerald just barely managed to get a foothold on the opposite edge. She sighed in relief, only to have Rolles crash into her and grab a hold of her back, knocking her off balance. She flailed her arms in an attempt to catch it again, but it was futile.

"Well, fuck," Rolles muttered before she and Emerald crashed into the pool of clear water.

* * *

One of the pitchers starts to glow with a yellow tint, catching the woman's attention. She turns to face it, and she calmly reads the label. " 'Unae terrae, sex ponti,' " She says with a hint of amusement in her voice. " 'One land, six oceans.' An interesting choice, my son. I don't think you've ever been a to an ocean world before."

She removes the pitcher from the shelf, and as she does so, a red and a green tint are added to the glow.

"It also seems those two girls have followed you into the same world." The woman says softly. "I guess I won't be the one cleaning up after your mess." She starts to walk over to the basin, but she stops for a moment and smiles slightly. "It looks like Sortisira gets to relax for once."


	3. A Whole New World

**A/N: Sheesh, I really need to keep a schedule when it comes to these things. Sorry about not updating for a year. School kind of ate my life.**

**Many thanks to Lucky Marie for letting me use her character Emerald and for giving this a good looking-over.  
**

* * *

_"Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe."_

_- _Alphonso X 'the Wise'_  
_

* * *

Their senses were barraged as they fell beneath the surface. A cacophony of sounds assaulted their ears as all shades of the rainbow swirled together in a dizzying dance that defied the imagination.

Emerald squeezed her eyes shut, but they only seemed to intensify. It felt like all her senses were being assaulted by the colors. Fiery reds and scorching oranges burned imprints on to her eyes. Blues and yellows forced their way down her throat and into her stomach, churning it so much that she felt like she was going to be sick. Bolts of violet slammed into her stomach while greens wrapped themselves around her limbs. Black and white pushed their way through her ears and spelled out words for brief moments before they pushed themselves out again. She opened her mouth to scream, but a smokey gray gagged her before she could.

Rolles was unaware of her companion's plight. Every sound she had ever heard screamed in her ears. Coherent thought was absolutely impossible as the sounds of jackhammers pounded upon her eardrums. A woman screamed as microphone feedback accompanied her. There were snatches of music hidden amongst the barrage of sounds, apparently being played by a violin. She tried to identify it, but it was soon lost among bagpipes and jet engines. Her throat ached as muscles recalled the sounds they made throughout her life, from the first time she had cried as she was being born to the howls of delight she made when she wrestled with her brothers.

_I'm going to die,_ They both managed to think.

But as quickly as it had had started, the tide of colors began to recede and the sounds faded away into the background. Blues and small globs of greens and whites scattered about as, one by one, unnecessary sounds disappeared altogether.

Like a painter working upon a canvas, the blue were churned and brushed about. Whites oozed in, lightening the top as it left large puffy masses behind and rimming parts of the bottom. Greens, reds, and browns began to dot the darker half, mixing together and separating almost at random. The faint sounds of crashing waves and gulls' cries permeated the air.

A world was created, one with a deep blue ocean and a beautiful azure sky above it. There were lush islands scattered about with miles between them. Brown spits of barren rocky land were clustered together. A large strip of rusty red was visible, stretching as far as the eye could see. Thin triangles of white could be seen upon the ocean, some with a small brown dot at their peak.

All was still as Emerald gaped at the sight of this brand new world that she and Rolles were looking down upon, and she wondered if Rolles was right and it really was a dream.

"This is amazing," Her voice was no louder than a whisper, worried that the world would shatter and disappear if she didn't.

"God damn," Rolles's eyes were wide. There were millions of thoughts racing through her head at that moment, none of them deciding to stay. Completely awestruck for the first time in her life, one of the thoughts that fluttered through she decided to vocalize. "Do you think this is what an astronaut feels like?"

"How many astronauts do you know saw an entire world being created?"

"The closest thing we've got to an astronaut in my family is my space case uncle," She was silent for a moment. "Do you think that it'll be stuck like this forever?"

"I dunno. How do you unstick a whole world?"

"According to my mother, the world popped into existence when someone said 'ohm'."

Emerald cocked her head at her. "What?"

"Or something like that. Mum would tell me and my brothers stories like that all the time. I think she said it was Hindu."

"I see," She said. "I think you might be on to something, though. Do you know any other stories like that?"

"Creation myths?"

"Yeah. Maybe if we do the right actions or say the magic words, the world will unstick itself."

Rolles stared at her. "I take back what I said earlier about your stupidest idea idea. That one takes the cake."

"If you'd care to look around, I happened to be right about that one."

"That doesn't change the fact that it was still stupid."

Emerald bit back a retort. "Just start remembering myths!" She ordered.

"Alright, alright, fine," Rolles tipped her head back and closed her eyes. "Let's see...the Greeks and Romans believed Gaia was born out of Chaos, so no real magic words there. I already told you the 'ohm' thing, and there aren't any frost giants around either, so it couldn't be Norse."

"Anything else?"

"World Turtles lays eggs."

"...What?"

"Haven't you ever read _Discworld_?"

"That's fiction, it doesn't count."

"We just saw a portal into the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ universe and I saw Anhk-Morpork. I'd say anything is fair game."

"Whatever," Emerald closed her eyes, racking her brains for anything that could possibly help. The only Native American myth she knew wouldn't help, as that involved a gigantic turtle, an ocean, and dirt. There weren't any lotus flowers, so the Ancient Egyptians wouldn't be of much use either. Maybe Christianity's story? Nah, that might start an argument about whether the Bible counts as fiction.

Rolles's eyes opened. "I think I've got it."

"Got what?"

"An idea."

"Wow, really? I'll notify CNN."

"Do you want to hear it or not, blondie?" Taking Emerald's annoyed glare as a yes, she continued. "You've read _The Chronicles of Narnia_, right?"

"Yeah."

"Aslan created Narnia with his singing."

Emerald snapped her fingers. "So we sing, then?"

"Worth a shot."

"I'll go first," Emerald cleared her throat. "_I used to think maybe you loved me, now I know it for sure..._"

Rolles interrupted her. "No no no, stop! It's probably something older!" She said. " Like this," She started humming a song Emerald didn't recognize.

"What the heck is that?"

"Dvorak's Ninth. Also called _From the New World_."

"Oh," Emerald sighed. "Doesn't look like it's working."

Rolles bit her lip. She was absolutely sure that a song would put the world in motion, but what could it be?

At the same time, the girls remembered what had happened to them when they had first fallen into the pool of water. Emerald thought of the words that had appeared in her head, and she whispered them under her breath. At the same time, Rolles began to hum snatches the tune she had heard earlier.

It was if they had recited a magic spell. The ships below them started to move and the ocean began to churn. Birds flew through the air and fish jumped. They caught a whiff of the overpowering smell of the salt that saturated the water below.

As soon as she stopped humming, Rolles realized that they were falling straight towards one of the islands. She smirked slightly to herself when it occurred to her that Emerald would probably become a fine pink mist once they struck the ground, but she realized that the same would likely happen to her. She screamed a myriad of profanities in shock.

Emerald was unusually calm, smiling and spreading her arms. She didn't think it was likely she would die upon hitting the ground, as then the point of the pools acting as portals would be defeated. As the island grew in size, she saw that it was inhabited. There were boats docked in a harbor, and she could just make out people and animals clogging the streets of a town. Knowing that it would cause a commotion if two girls fell from the sky, she steered herself towards the harbor.

Rolles glanced at her briefly, and nearly gave herself whiplash when she saw Emerald's grin. She tried to voice her shock, but the wind carried it away above her head. Emerald turned to her and smiled even wider. Nudging Rolles with her foot, she motioned towards herself.

Looking at her companion warily the entire way, she swam over towards Emerald. As the water got closer, she guessed that they had a little over 30 seconds to figure out what they were going to do. Her stomach dropped as she watched Emerald right herself so that she would hit the water feet first. Rolles wondered what she was doing as she imitated her. Bracing herself for impact, she took a breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

The pair landed between two boats with a loud splash. Rolles was unprepared for the coldness of the water and yelped, getting a mouthful of salt water for her trouble.

Without hesitation, Rolles grabbed her arms and began to kick towards the surface. Emerald had suddenly become a lot heavier, she thought to herself as she fought to drag her and her cargo upwards.

They broke the surface and they both gasped for air, Emerald in particular.

"For a child genius, you're a real crappy swimmer," Rolles panted.

"I am not!"

"You just sunk like a rock."

Emerald continued panting. "I used to be on the swim team. I know how to swim. Honest. I have no idea what just happened. This has never happened to me before! Well, it happened another time, but that was when I was-"

"Whatever, Silver," Rolles interjected, cutting off her companion's ramble. "Just keep your hands around my neck and don't let go. 'Cause if you do, you're on your own."

* * *

The woman pours the water into the basin. The three lights swirl together before separating again. The yellow is on the left and the red and green are towards the right.

The yellow glow expands to fill half the basin. The light fades after a few moments and is replaced by the figure of a young man. He has golden hair, much like his mother, and he seems to glide across the ground as he runs. He in the midst of a throng of people. He ducks and weaves around them or pushes them out of his way where necessary. A look of confusion and urgency is upon his face. He crashes into a woman. He curses and apologizes as he helps her up. She merely laughs and asks where he is going. He replies that he doesn't know. She laughs again and asks if he would be interested in doing a job for her. He rolls his eyes, but says yes.

The woman smiles. "Always the gentleman, aren't you, my son?"

The scene changes to a small room. There is a a vanity with a mirror against one wall and a wardrobe against the opposite. A folding screen is in front of the wardrobe. A different woman is talking to the young man. She has brown hair and skin the color of coffee. She holds out an envelope for him to take. She asks him to deliver it to the man that sent her the previous letters. He nods.

The image flickers. The younger man watches as the woman embraces an older man. Her hair has changed to a lighter color. The older man towers over both of them. The woman smiles and thanks the younger man for acting as mail courier for them. The younger man smiles back and says that it was his pleasure.

The scene changes once more. The young man is sitting on a rooftop with a man and two women. He wears a mantle and a red scarf. They are in a desert city. He addresses one of the women. She wears the skin of a boar. She shakes her head. She turns to the other woman and asks her the same question. There are a pair of ram's horns upon her head. She also shakes her head. The other man remains silent. He is wearing a white bird mask that covers his entire face.

The image fades. It is replaced by the young man standing on a beach. His shoes are next to him. He watches as the waves lap at his feet.

The right side of the basin begins to glow. Two girls crawl onto a dock. One has short brown hair. The other had yellow hair. They are arguing.

The woman brushes her golden hair out of her face. "Those girls are going to have a lot of trouble on their hands," She says. "Poor dears. I'll have to send someone to aid them. But who?"

She waves her hand over the basin. The figures in the water disappear. The are replaced by millions of flashing images. She searches for a guide amongst all the people who live in the world. She examines their their futures and their presents. She examines their occupations and their attitudes. She looks for a long time.

"Stop," The woman says. The images slow in their flashing. They stop on an image of a boat sailing across an ocean. There is a large skull-and-crossbones design on the sail. A young man sits atop the figurehead of the boat. A straw hat is perched on his head.

The woman smiles as she looks through his future. She sees a ghost ship and an island situated above a waterfall. She smiles wider as she sees the same desert her son was in and the same beach he sat on. "It appears I've found them a perfect guide," She titters. "Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong in the meantime."

* * *

**Thank you for reading!  
**


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